Daily Mail Article on Sunday 4th December in Financial Mail5 Dec 2022 11:30
MIDAS SHARE TIPS: Backing currency trader could start your cash rising - Argentex looks after businesses, financial firms and the wealthy
By JOANNE HART, FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 21:51, 3 December 2022 | UPDATED: 14:29, 4 December 2022
The foreign exchange market is the largest financial market in the world, with more than £5.5trillion of currencies traded every day, far exceeding stock and bond markets.
Many trades are purely speculative, as banks and brokers bet on the direction of certain currencies.
But currency markets also provide an essential service for anyone who works regularly with customers or suppliers from abroad.
Argentex operates in a specific area of this vast industry – looking after businesses, financial firms and the very wealthy, who want more than is on offer from their high street banks.
The firm floated on AIM in June 2019 at £1.06 and its share price had risen to more than £1.60 by January 2020. Then the pandemic hit.
Argentex shares lost their way, the firm had a couple of wobbles and the stock fell to below £1 earlier this year.
But chief executive Harry Adams used the Covid downturn to strengthen his business and the results are starting to come through. Sales are growing fast and the shares are now above the flotation price once more, at £1.19. They should continue to gain ground.
Adams founded Argentex in 2012. Then a 30-year-old foreign exchange trader in the City, he spotted a gap in the market.
Huge multinational firms could use top investment businesses to sort out their currency needs, while holidaymakers and small businesses could use high street banks, post offices and bureaux de change. Mid-sized firms were in a bind. They wanted more than traditional banks could give them but were too small to be of interest to major foreign exchange specialists.
Fortunately for Adams, his currency clients included the billionaire Sir John Beckwith. He backed Argentex from the start and his family office, Pacific Investments, remains a 14 per cent shareholder. The investment has proved sound.
From nothing a decade ago, Argentex has nearly 1,400 customers, including supermarkets, carmakers, oil producers – even flower importers and motorbike manufacturers.
Many of these firms have complex foreign exchange needs. They may be exporting to or importing from several different countries. They may be buying goods from one part of the world and selling to another. They may want to lock in rates months or years in advance. Above all, they want to know that they are in capable hands.
That is where Argentex comes into its own. The group adopts a private banking approach to its customers, taking time to understand their business so they can offer tailor-made advice and service, however complicated or unusual the demands.
Adams does not indulge in speculative trading or trading on its own account. Instead, Argentex focuses purely on customers' present and future currency needs, minimising foreign
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